provided by John Phillips
I first met Mossy Oak Pro Ashlee Lundvall of Cody, Wyoming, 5 years ago. “I’d like to become an outdoor writer and work in the outdoors,” Lundvall told me then. Her dream certainly has come true. In that short time, she’s won the Pathfinder Award presented by Safari Club International (SCI) and a hunting trip for her family and herself to Africa. Lundvall also has been appointed to the President’s Council for Sports, Fitness and Nutrition along with well-known outstanding athletes, movie stars and coaches. She’s been asked to become a brand advisor for a silencer/suppressor company and serves on two National Rifle Association (NRA) committees – the Outreach Committee and the Disabled Shooting Sports Committee. She writes for “Women in the Outdoors,” “Able Outdoors” and several other publications. She’s now training for archery competitions to qualify for the Paralympic Games either in 2022 or 2024.
Because Action Trackchairs and other off-road wheelchairs are fairly expensive ($10,000+) for the seated ones and another $5,000 for a Trackchair that enables you to stand up in it, these alternative forms of mobility are out-of-the-reach financially for most people with physical disabilities. However, today, several funding opportunities help overcome these costs. The Action Mobility Foundation helps fund the Action Trackchair that can help to fund chairs for people who need them. The Challenged Athletes Foundation is another group that helps people with disabilities fund adaptive equipment like the Trackchair and a sports chair for road racing, playing basketball and taking part in other adaptive sports. This organization helped me buy a hand cycle a couple of years ago, and last year helped me purchase a compound bow for archery competitions.
Also, local outdoor organizations may rally round a person with a disability to help raise money to purchase adaptive equipment to get him or her back into the outdoors and to participate in outdoor sports. The Kelly Brush Foundation also helps fund adaptive equipment. One of the foundations I work with is located in Alabama and helps people on a one-on-one basis to get needed equipment – the Outdoor Ability Foundation that was started by a young man with a disability to help encourage other people like him to return to the outdoors.
Like used cars, adaptive equipment can be purchased at reasonable prices. I suggest people look for a demo chair that an adaptive-wheelchair distributor has taken to sports shows or used to show people all that the chair can do for them. By talking to a local distributor, you may be able to locate a used chair. Yet another alternative is to go to social media groups for people with physical disabilities to find people selling gently used adaptive equipment to outdoor enthusiasts.
In her book, “A Redefined Life,” Ashley tells how she was injured at age 16 and not only recovered but today lives a life she’d only dreamed of having. Ashlee’s book is also available from Amazon.
